Radioactive
by CaissyM
Summary: It started off as just a few odd things, darkening eye color, lightening hair, eyesight that got better, eyesight that became more sensitive to the sun. All of these things turned out to be symptoms of a disease that none of us had heard of before, not that we ever got a specific name for it. So please, do not try to find me.
1. Chapter 1: The Letter

Dear Readers,

I know that almost all of you have no clue about what is going on with us, the way we have vanished and are becoming much less present than we were before. I promise you, there is a good reason for this, there is something wrong with us, we just… haven't mentioned anything to you, yet, because we did not want any of you to be worrying about anything. This is something that will never affect you, it seems to just be affecting us countries that are personified.

I would like to come out and speak to you myself, explain why and how this happened, but I fear that I do not have the freedom that I once did and I fear that whatever is inside of me may try to hurt you out of spite. Though I hate to think of that happening to you, my citizens, because I care for each of you, though I may not know you all.

So please, do not try to find me.

As I was saying though, I feel the need to explain myself, to tell you exactly what happened to all of us, though I have not seen the others in years now, for all I know they could be dead.

Not really though, these things inside of us are not going to let any of us go so easily.

It started off as just a few odd things, darkening eye color, lightening hair, eyesight that got better, eyesight that became more sensitive to the sun. This wasn't thought of as much more than that average country stuff, sometimes our hair changes color, sometimes our eyes do the same. I remember that time that England told me had a brunette phase at one point, and how his hair was white once because of the wigs that almost every one of that time wore in his country.

I, of course, always thought that having my hair change color would be pretty cool, now all I wish is that my blonde hair would come back, that my eyes, now a dark maroon color, would change back to their bright blue. I never realized how much I would miss my looks until i no longer recognized myself in the mirror.

All of these things turned out as symptoms of a disease that none of us had heard of before, not that we ever got a specific name for it. Because it had never happened before it infected us and no one knows how it started. All anyone knows is how I am the one that started it, the one that began the spreading of it to the other countries.

I cannot continue any longer, so I must end with this:

To any other country out there that somehow managed to avoid getting infected, please, stay away. Do not come looking for us, we are toxic and I do not wish this life upon even my worst enemies. I saw what happened to Russia, I saw him brought lower than he had ever been and I was in tears for the man. I may have not liked him, but no one should have to go through something as… terrible as he did.

This is Alfred F. Jones, signing off and wishing luck to those who are still free.

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Disclaimer: Because I don't own Hetalia, though I would be a very happy camper if I did.

Tell me whatcha think please!

Over and Out~


	2. Chapter 2: Plumes

I read the letter with tears in my eyes, this was a man, broken and beaten, made to submit to a force he could not control, that he couldn't even understand. I remembered the days I had spent with Alfred, he always cared more about others than himself, even with that cocky attitude of his, all he ever wanted was to see a world that was completely free and at peace. Even if he was never quite sure how to make this a reality.

Too bad this letter never got the opportunity to reach the public, maybe it could have saved a few more lives that way, as it is, only about three countries, as far as I know of, managed to survive the Plague of Nations, as it was soon been nicknamed by many of us, well, those who had not yet been affected. This number was not counting myself, of course, I don't really consider myself a nation anymore, no matter how sad that truth is, it is still a truth that I accept. Though that did not stop the disease from trying to take root inside of me. Now I was, attempting at being, more of a mentor to these few survivors, offering support where I could.

"Gilbert!" My head shot up from where I had it buried in my diary, no, journal. I had kept record of everything that had happened since the beginning, I had given others journals to do the same, So that they could document their own experiences, because it wasn't like I could see everything, everywhere, at all times of the day,

I wish I could find those journals, maybe then we could discover a few more things about the disease, find a cure, help others to cope with the terror of it. All I would like to do is… somthing. Something that could help my fellow nations, all of whom I had known for a long, long time.

"Gilbert." The voice snapped again, bringing me back from my sudden drift of thoughts. I blinked up at the young man who stood above me, his violet and yellow bicolored eyes glaring down at me, making me grin sheepishly, my thoughts had drowned the rest of the world out a lot lately.

I stood up, closed the journal and began to walk toward the opening in my tent, "Whaddya need, Ice?" I asked, shuffling the small, leather-bound book into my knapsack.

Iceland shrugged, following me as we both left the small space and came out into the middle of the clearing that had become our camp, "Poland and Latvia wanted to talk about where we are going next, we should probably move out soon, we've been here too long anyway."

A small wry smile forced its way onto my lips, you definitely knew you were on the run when staying in a place three days was "too long". "Okie Dokie, lead the way my black and white friend."

His bicolored eyes snapped to my red and green eyes, giving me a look that said he was not pleased with my newest attempt at a nickname. I couldn't help saying it though, "Ice" was getting boring and repetitive and, like me, Iceland's silvery-white hair had become half black, split almost perfectly down the middle, matching sides with his yellow eye.

I almost flinched seconds later, though, as a bright smile came into existence on a usually stoic face, his purple eye darkening and yellow eye taking on a more life-like glow. _"Well now, that sure was clever of you, wasn't it? You are probably extremely proud-"_

I did the only thing that I could think of in that situation.

I slapped Iceland across the face, hard as I could, and watched in fascination as his other half began to disappear within him again.

"Like, wow, Prussia, I, totally, don't think that you had to, like, hit him that hard," came a voice from behind me, making me jump and spin to face the half blonde, half brunette. His green and red eyes sparkled with amusement and fear at the same time, still the same person he had always been, but also nothing like the happy-go-lucky Pole that he once was.

"No, no, don't worry, I'm good," Iceland spoke up, his cheek reddening slightly, but he looked none too bad considering, well, everything. In fact, none of us looked too bad for all that we had been through recently, even little Latvia, who had once been afraid of his own shadow.

'Used to' being the key words there.

Speak of the devil, Latvia ran over to our small group from his own tent, looking like something was bothering him greatly, "Hey, guys?" His voice shook in a way that I hadn't heard since a month or two after we began our adventure as unofficial fugitives. Yes, I considered us fugitives, we were running from a law called "Natural Selection" after all. Seeing as we were not as well adapted to survive this cruel and twisted game of cat and mouse that the world had thrown at us, and those who did not adapt… well, you know what happens to them. If I was at all superstitious I would say that this was all our overdue karma coming back to us at once. But I wasn't, so, to me, this was life in all of it's terribly wonderful glory.

"What's up?" I asked, more than a little concerned myself, the nation had grown quite the backbone lately, for him to look as he did meant that something was definitely wrong.

Poland spoke before Latvia could answer though, "Umm… like, I think we should totally start running, like, now." His bicolored eyes stared at something off in the forest, to the East of us, causing me, as well as the other two, to follow his look.

Latvia looked shocked, but not completely so, as if he had expected something, but actually seeing it had thrown him off completely. He had most likely been hoping that he was wrong, I know that I would be, we couldn't let ourselves be caught by what was chasing us. Doing so would mean almost certain death, or, as close as a nation could get to it.

Above the treeline was a plume of smoke, speaking of a campfire still roaring in the distance. Even though it was in the 'distance', the 'distance' was still far too close for any of us to allow ourselves any comforts.

"How did they find us again?" Iceland muttered, running to his tent and collapsing it as quickly as possible, shoving it into his own knapsack, which carried the flags of four other nations that weren't his own, before slinging the sack over his shoulder.

The rest of us all followed his example after we got over our bearings back, Iceland had always been the more levelheaded of the four of us. Always managing to put himself back together fairly well after any kind of surprise.

When we all had our tents collected and sacks over our shoulders or across our back, each of them sporting flags that were not our own, we gathered together at the West end of the clearing.

Poland took the lead first, wandering into the forest with a purpose, like he knew exactly where he was going. When, in reality, we had no idea where we would end up. Iceland and Latvia followed the man, walking beside each other, keeping an eye on both sides of our little group, leaving me to take up the rear. None of us minded not knowing where we were going, whether it was deeper into the forest or closer to a city or town, we didn't bother with the thought of a 'destination'. All we cared about was getting as far away from the plume of smoke as possible. Only they would be able to pinpoint our location as closely as the smoke had gotten. If we had waited even one more day in that clearing… who knows what would have happened to us.

We were all quiet as we walked through the rough, untamed forest, the animals chattering around us being the only sound to break our silence, hopefully it masked some of our own noises too.

After a while of walking in silence, I decided that one of us had to say something, the tension that our unexpected visitors had brought us was making me physically sick.

So I maneuvered one of my journals from my bag while I walked, opening to a random page and reading the portion out loud, just audible enough for the others to hear, but no one else. Not that any normal people would be this deep out into the Białowieża Forest, but that didn't mean that we were completely alone.

_"... I couldn't believe what I was seeing, blood soaked through the floorboards, staining the one chestnut-brown wood an ugly cherry. I couldn't help but gasp at the sight of the red carpet that I was sure had, at one point, been a light beige. As I followed the trail of blood, I couldn't stop myself from hoping that, maybe Feliciano just spilled some pasta sauce, from the kitchen to the far bedrooms. I knew this wasn't true though. I just knew that behind one of these doors, lining the hallway that I had come to, I would find something horrific. I hadn't been sure of what, exactly, this would be._

_I came to stand in front of one door where the blood seemed to have pooled in a larger quantity than the others, bloody handprints and fingerprints covered the knob. I could feel my hand shaking as I reached for the doorknob, cringing at the pungent smell that burned my nose hairs and the squishing that my shoes made when stepping onto the liquid soaked carpet. I hesitated, before closing my eyes and, this time, imagining that it was just a red sauce that covered the doorknob._

_I pulled the door open with a quick twist, opening my eyes and trying to ignore the sticky red substance that was covering my poor, innocent fingers._

_And what I saw… what I saw..._

_I hate Prussia for making us write in this stupid journal. I didn't want to think about this stuff the first time around, not to mention second. And he wants us to write with 'great detail', why would I want to do that?"_

I laughed, Romano had never been fond of the journal idea, not that I could blame him. I may have been the one to put the system into motion, but I could understand where he was coming from, somethings need to stayed buried in the back of your mind for the rest of eternity. But we didn't have the luxury of this choice anymore, we had been desperate for a way to fight this rapidly worsening disease.

I took a breath, pushing away my own dark memories, before continuing.

_"Well, whatever, if he wants details, I'll give him details._

_What I saw through that door was not something that I would ever wish to see again in my life. Standing above a bloodstained Germany was my little brother, coated in a thin layer of red along with the areas surrounding him. In one hand he held onto Germany's hair, pulling his head up, and in the other he held a sharpened kitchen knife, obviously having been the weapon of choice in this attack._

_I'll admit that I may have screamed just the slightest, causing Feliciano's eyes, which had recently morphed to a deep magenta color, to snap towards my own. I felt myself freeze at that stare, there was something about it that wasn't familiar. It didn't feel like a stare down with my kid brother, who broke down into hysterics at the slightest thing, no, this was something much colder._

_His eyes remained on mine as he took one last swing at the unconscious German, leaving a deep, ugly gash on his cheek, one that didn't start to close up immediately, like most wounds would do._

_He stood up from where he had been straddled across Germany's chest, approaching me._

'Hey, brother, want to play a game?'

_And I realized that something was very wrong with my brother._"

Poland and Latvia had switched positions in our group, the smaller taking the lead from the other and the blonde-brunette taking the spot beside Iceland. "Can you imagine what Romano must have gone through?" Latvia asked quietly, running a hand through his blonde and black hair, a habit he had acquired recently.

I shook my head, no, I didn't want to even try to think about it, "No, I can't, Italy was one of the most violent after he got infected."

_"Oh, was I now?"_

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_Thanks to the people who reviewed/faved/followed! I love ya~_

_Also, feel free to ask any kind of questions about this chapter, I know that it may have been kind of confusing. It's just one of those situations where I know perfectly what I'm trying to say, but I don't know if other people will as well._

_Later gators~_


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